AWS Service Comparison and Cheat Sheet

Note: these were created primarily with ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, with a bit of back and forth prompting, pasting in AWS docs and correcting things.

AWS main topology and infrastructure options

Feature	AWS Regions	AWS Local Zones	AWS Edge Locations	AWS Wavelength	AWS Outposts
Scope	Geographically distinct locations with multiple Availability Zones	Extensions of Regions in metro areas	Global locations for content delivery and caching	Integrated with telecom providers' 5G networks	AWS infrastructure deployed on-premises
Purpose	General-purpose, high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery	Low-latency access to a subset of AWS services in metro areas	Improve web application performance through caching	Ultra-low latency and high-bandwidth for 5G applications	Consistent hybrid experience and local processing
Latency	Varies, typically higher compared to Local Zones and Wavelength	Lower latency compared to Regions	Ultra-low latency for cached content	Lowest possible latency by being embedded within the 5G network	Low latency for on-premises applications
Primary Use	Broad spectrum of applications, data storage, backups	Latency-sensitive applications like real-time gaming, live streaming, AR/VR	Content delivery, web application performance	Real-time applications requiring ultra-low latency and high bandwidth	Applications requiring local processing, data residency, and low-latency
Services	Full range of AWS services	Subset of AWS services	CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator, AWS WAF, Lambda@Edge	Subset of AWS services (e.g., EC2, EBS, VPC)	Full range of AWS services available on-premises
Examples	US East (N. Virginia), EU (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Tokyo)	Los Angeles, Boston, Miami	Over 400 locations globally	Cities with 5G coverage through telecom partners like Verizon, Vodafone	Customer data centers, edge locations, remote facilities
Connectivity	Standard AWS global network	Connected to the nearest AWS Region	Part of AWS global network	Directly connected to telecom providers’ 5G networks	Connected to AWS Regions for hybrid workloads

AWS Networking Topology, Firewalls and Routing

Feature	VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)	Security Groups	Network ACLs (Access Control Lists)	Route Tables	Internet Gateway	NAT Gateway	Transit Gateway	AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)
Scope	Isolated section of AWS Cloud	Instance-level firewall	Subnet-level firewall	Controls routing of traffic within VPC	Connects VPC to the internet	Enables outbound internet traffic for instances in private subnets	Connects multiple VPCs and on-premises networks	Protects web applications from common web exploits
Purpose	Define a virtual network logically isolated from other AWS resources	Control inbound/outbound traffic for instances	Control inbound/outbound traffic for subnets	Manage routes between subnets and to external destinations	Allow resources in a VPC to access the internet	Allow private subnet resources to access the internet	Simplify network architecture with centralized connectivity	Protect against web exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting
Granularity	Network-wide	Instance-level	Subnet-level	VPC/subnet-level	VPC-level	Subnet-level	VPC and network-wide	Application-level
Stateful/Stateless	N/A	Stateful	Stateless	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Stateful
Traffic Direction	Inbound and outbound	Inbound and outbound	Inbound and outbound	Inbound and outbound	Outbound only	Outbound only	Inbound and outbound	Inbound and outbound
Default Behavior	Isolated network, no traffic allowed by default	Deny all inbound, allow all outbound by default	Allow all inbound and outbound by default	Allow routing within VPC, explicit routes needed for external traffic	No traffic allowed by default	No traffic allowed by default	No connectivity by default	No protection by default
Rules	Define CIDR blocks, subnets, route tables	Allow rules based on IP addresses, port numbers, protocols	Allow and deny rules based on IP addresses, port numbers, protocols	Define routes based on IP address ranges and targets	N/A	N/A	N/A	Rules to allow or block specific HTTP/S requests
Use Cases	Customizable network topology, security, and management	Protect instances from unwanted traffic	Additional layer of security at the subnet level	Direct traffic within VPC and to/from external networks	Provide internet access to VPC resources	Provide internet access to private subnets	Simplify and manage complex network topologies	Protect web applications from malicious attacks
Examples	Create VPC with public and private subnets	Configure Security Groups to allow SSH traffic on port 22	Set up Network ACL to allow HTTP traffic on port 80	Route traffic between public subnet and internet	Attach Internet Gateway to VPC	Deploy NAT Gateway in public subnet for private subnet access	Connect multiple VPCs across regions for centralized control	Apply WAF rules to protect against OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities
Integration	Integrated with other AWS services like EC2, RDS, Lambda, etc.	Works with EC2 instances, ELB, RDS	Works with VPC subnets, integrated with CloudTrail for logging	Integrated with VPC, subnets, Internet/NAT Gateways	Integrated with VPC and Route Tables	Integrated with VPC, Route Tables, and Security Groups	Integrated with VPCs, Direct Connect, and VPNs	Integrated with CloudFront, API Gateway, ALB, and Route 53

AWS Storage Services

Feature	S3 (Simple Storage Service)	EBS (Elastic Block Store)	EFS (Elastic File System)	Glacier	FSx	EC2 Instance Store	AWS Storage Gateway	AWS File Cache
Scope	Object storage	Block storage for EC2 instances	File storage	Archival storage	Managed file systems (Windows, Lustre, etc.)	Ephemeral block storage for EC2 instances	Hybrid cloud storage	Caching for high-performance applications
Purpose	Store and retrieve any amount of data	Persistent block storage for EC2 instances	Scalable file storage for multiple instances	Long-term data archiving	Specialized file systems for specific use cases	Temporary storage for high I/O operations	Integrate on-premises environments with AWS	Cache frequently accessed data for low latency
Data Access	HTTP/S, REST API	Attached to EC2 instances as volumes	NFS (Network File System)	REST API, SDK	NFS (Lustre), SMB (Windows)	Directly attached to EC2 instances	NFS, SMB, iSCSI	NFS, SMB
Durability	99.999999999% (11 9's)	99.999%	99.999999999%	99.999999999%	99.999999999% (varies by FSx type)	Data persists only during instance life	Varies by configuration	99.999999999%
Availability	99.99% - 99.999999999%	99.99%	99.99%	99.99%	99.99% (varies by FSx type)	Data persists only during instance life	Varies by configuration	99.99%
Scalability	Virtually unlimited	Up to 64 TiB per volume	Virtually unlimited	Virtually unlimited	Up to petabytes	Limited to instance type	Scale up by adding more gateways	Scale by adding more cache nodes
Performance	High throughput, low latency	High IOPS, low latency	Scalable throughput and IOPS	Varies (low retrieval times for expedited)	High performance (varies by FSx type)	High IOPS, low latency	Dependent on network and configuration	High performance, low latency
Use Cases	Backup, archival, data lakes, big data analytics	Databases, file systems, applications	Big data and analytics, content management	Long-term backups, regulatory archives	HPC, big data analytics, Windows applications	Caching, temporary data processing	Backup and restore, file sharing, disaster recovery	High-speed caching for data-intensive applications
Pricing	Pay-as-you-go, based on storage used	Pay-as-you-go, based on provisioned storage	Pay-as-you-go, based on storage used	Pay-as-you-go, based on storage and retrieval	Pay-as-you-go, based on provisioned storage	Included in EC2 instance cost	Pay-as-you-go, based on gateway and usage	Pay-as-you-go, based on provisioned cache
Integration	Integrated with many AWS services (Lambda, Athena)	Integrated with EC2	Integrated with EC2, ECS, Lambda	Integrated with S3 for archival	Integrated with EC2, Direct Connect	Integrated with EC2	Integrated with on-premises infrastructure	Integrated with AWS storage services
Management	Managed by AWS	Managed by AWS	Managed by AWS	Managed by AWS	Managed by AWS	User-managed	Managed by AWS, with on-premises deployment	Managed by AWS
Examples	Storing images, videos, backups, logs	Running databases, ERP systems	Shared file storage for web serving, CMS	Archiving financial and healthcare records	FSx for Windows (file storage), FSx for Lustre (HPC)	High-performance storage for temporary data	File Gateway for NFS/SMB, Tape Gateway	Caching frequently accessed data for HPC

AWS Database Services

Feature	Amazon RDS	Amazon DynamoDB	Amazon Aurora	Amazon Redshift	Amazon ElastiCache	Amazon MemoryDB for Redis	Amazon DocumentDB	Amazon Keyspaces	Amazon Neptune	Amazon Timestream	Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB)
Database Type	Relational	NoSQL (Key-Value and Document)	Relational	Data Warehouse	In-memory cache and store	Managed Redis-compatible in-memory database	Managed MongoDB-compatible document database	Managed Cassandra-compatible database	Managed graph database	Time series	Ledger database
Purpose	Traditional relational databases	High-performance, scalable NoSQL	MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility with added performance	Analytical queries and large-scale data processing	Accelerate database queries, caching	Low-latency, Redis-compatible caching	MongoDB workloads	Cassandra workloads	Relationship and graph-based queries	Store and analyze time series data	Immutable, cryptographically verifiable ledger
Use Cases	OLTP applications, transactional data	Applications requiring consistent, single-digit millisecond latency at any scale	High throughput and availability for relational workloads	Complex analytical queries, big data	Speed up read-heavy applications, session stores	Real-time bidding, session caching, leaderboards	Content management, catalogs, user profiles	IoT, messaging, gaming applications	Social networks, recommendation engines, fraud detection	IoT applications, operational monitoring	Supply chain, finance, health records
Data Model	Tables, rows, and columns	Tables with items (key-value pairs) and attributes	Tables, rows, and columns	Tables with rows and columns	Key-value store	Key-value store	Collections, documents (JSON)	Tables with rows and columns	Property graphs (nodes and edges)	Tables with rows and columns	Tables with rows and columns
Scalability	Vertical and horizontal scaling	Fully managed, automatic scaling	Auto-scaling, serverless options	Scalable compute nodes and storage	Cluster mode for sharding	Scalable through clustering	Auto-scaling storage	Scalable throughput and storage	Scale out with read replicas	Auto-scaling, serverless	Scales with ledger size
Performance	High performance with provisioned IOPS	Single-digit millisecond response times	High performance with up to 5x throughput of standard MySQL	High performance for analytical queries	Low latency	Microsecond read and write latencies	Millisecond read and write latencies	Millisecond latency	Millisecond latency	High ingestion rates and query performance	High throughput
Availability	Multi-AZ deployments for high availability	Global tables for multi-region and high availability	Multi-AZ, cross-region replication	Multi-AZ, fault-tolerant	Multi-AZ clusters	Multi-AZ replication	Multi-AZ, continuous backups	Multi-AZ replication	Multi-AZ replication	Multi-AZ replication	Built-in multi-region availability
Management	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, on-demand backup and restore	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates	Fully managed, automatic backups, patching, and updates
Pricing	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, provisioned throughput	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, reserved nodes	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances	Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances
Examples	MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server	Key-value stores, gaming leaderboards, mobile apps	MySQL, PostgreSQL, Serverless, Global Databases	Business intelligence, complex queries	Session storage, leaderboard, caching	Gaming, financial services, health care applications	Content management systems, catalogs, user profiles	IoT applications, messaging, gaming applications	Social networks, recommendation engines, fraud detection	IoT sensor data, financial trading, operational monitoring	Supply chain tracking, financial systems, healthcare records

AWS Compute Services:

Feature	EC2	Lambda	Fargate	ECS	EKS	Lightsail
Service Type	Virtual Machines	Serverless Functions	Serverless Containers	Container Orchestration	Kubernetes Service	Virtual Private Server
Pricing Model	Pay per use (instance type, uptime)	Pay per use (invocations, duration)	Pay per use (vCPU, memory)	Pay per use (EC2 instances or Fargate)	Pay per use (EC2 instances, Fargate)	Fixed monthly plans
Compute Capacity	Configurable (instance types)	Automatically scales	Configurable (vCPU, memory)	Configurable (instances, tasks)	Configurable (nodes, pods)	Fixed options (plans)
Operational Responsibility	Server management (patching, scaling)	Fully managed	Cluster management	Cluster management	Cluster management	Fully managed
Deployment Model	Virtual Machines	Functions (code)	Containers	Containers	Containers	Virtual Machines
Orchestration	Manual or third-party tools	Fully managed	ECS or EKS	ECS	EKS	Manual or third-party tools
Primary Use Case	Long-running applications, monoliths	Event-driven, short-lived tasks	Microservices, batch jobs	Containerized applications	Containerized applications, microservices	Simple web apps, blogs, websites
Integration	Wide range of AWS services	Integrates with many AWS services	Integrates with other AWS services	Integrates with other AWS services	Integrates with other AWS services	Fewer integrations
Scalability	Vertical (instance types), Horizontal (Auto Scaling)	Automatically scales	Horizontal scaling	Horizontal scaling	Horizontal scaling	Vertical scaling (plan changes)
Container Support	Yes (with Docker or other tools)	No	Yes (managed containers)	Yes	Yes	Limited

EC2 instance types

Instance Type	On-Demand	Reserved	Spot	Dedicated Hosts	Dedicated Instances	Capacity Reserved
Pricing	Pay per second, no upfront cost	Upfront payment for a term, hourly usage fee	Bid-based, fluctuating price	Per-host billing, hourly rate	Per-instance billing, hourly rate	Upfront payment, hourly usage fee
Cost Savings	-	Up to 72% discount	Up to 90% discount	-	-	Discount over On-Demand
Instance Availability	Available as needed	Reserved capacity	Opportunistic, can be interrupted	Dedicated physical servers	Dedicated physical server capacity	Reserved capacity
Use Case	Short-term, unpredictable workloads	Steady-state, predictable usage	Fault-tolerant, flexible workloads	Compliance, licensing, legacy apps	Compliance, licensing requirements	Predictable usage
Term Commitment	None	1 or 3 years	None	3 years	None	1 or 3 years
Instance Types	All	Specific	Varies, based on availability	Specific	Specific	Specific

AWS Services List

SageMaker: Managed service for building, training, and deploying machine learning models.
Athena: Query service for analyzing data in S3 using SQL.
Kinesis: Real-time data streaming service.
Snowball: Physical device for data transfer to and from AWS.
Macie: Security service that uses machine learning to discover, classify, and protect sensitive data.
Glue: Managed ETL service for preparing and transforming data.
Elastic Beanstalk: Platform as a service for deploying and scaling web applications.
Fargate: Serverless compute engine for containers.
Lambda: Run code in response to events without provisioning servers.
Aurora: High-performance, MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database.
Neptune: Managed graph database service.
Lightsail: Easy-to-use virtual private server with predictable pricing.
Greengrass: Software for running local compute, messaging, and data caching for IoT devices.
Firehose: Load streaming data into data lakes, warehouses, and analytics services.
Redshift: Managed data warehouse service.
CloudFront: Content delivery network (CDN) service.
Wavelength: Brings AWS services to the edge of the 5G network.
Outposts: Bring AWS infrastructure and services to on-premises locations.
AppStream: Stream desktop applications to any device.
Chime: Communication service for online meetings, video conferencing, and business calling.
WorkSpaces: Managed, secure cloud desktop service.
Kendra: Enterprise search service powered by machine learning.
Lex: Build conversational interfaces using voice and text.
Polly: Text-to-speech service.
Transcribe: Automatic speech recognition (ASR) service.
Comprehend: Natural language processing (NLP) service.
Rekognition: Image and video analysis service.
Textract: Extract text and data from scanned documents.
Elemental: Video processing and delivery service.
Braket: Quantum computing service.
QuickSight: Business intelligence service for data visualization.
OpsWorks: Configuration management service that uses Chef or Puppet.
CodePipeline: Continuous integration and delivery service.
CodeBuild: Fully managed build service.
CodeDeploy: Automates code deployments to any instance.
CodeStar: Unified user interface for managing software development activities.
AppRunner: Deploy and run containerized web applications and APIs.
Step Functions: Coordinate distributed applications using visual workflows.
Config: Service to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources.
X-Ray: Debug and analyze microservices applications.
Elastic Transcoder: Media transcoding service.
Proton: Automated management for container and serverless deployments.
AppFlow: Managed integration service for SaaS apps.
Ground Station: Fully managed service for satellite communications.
IoT Core: Managed cloud service for connected devices.
IoT Greengrass: Software to run local compute, messaging, and data caching for IoT devices.
IoT Analytics: Analytics service for IoT data.
IoT Events: Service for detecting and responding to events from IoT sensors.
IoT SiteWise: Collect, store, organize, and monitor data from industrial equipment.
IoT Things Graph: Service for building IoT applications with little or no code.
IoT TwinMaker: Service to create digital twins of real-world systems.
Location Service: Add location data to applications.
Panorama: Computer vision at the edge.
Sumerian: Create and run 3D, AR, and VR applications.
Glue DataBrew: Visual data preparation tool.
EventBridge: Serverless event bus for integrating applications.
Systems Manager: Unified interface for operational data from AWS services.
Certificate Manager: Provision, manage, and deploy SSL/TLS certificates.
Artifact: Access compliance reports and agreements.
GuardDuty: Threat detection service.
Detective: Investigate security issues.
Security Hub: Central security management service.
Shield: DDoS protection service.
WAF: Web application firewall.
Audit Manager: Automates evidence collection for audits.
Control Tower: Set up and govern a secure, compliant multi-account AWS environment.
Service Catalog: Create and manage catalogs of IT services.
Well-Architected Tool: Review and improve cloud architectures.
Personalize: Real-time personalization and recommendation service.
Forecast: Time-series forecasting service.
DeepComposer: Machine learning-powered music composition.
DeepLens: Deep learning-enabled video camera.
DeepRacer: Autonomous 1/18th scale race car for reinforcement learning.
AWS Batch: Run batch computing workloads.
Elastic File System (EFS): Scalable file storage service.
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets.
FSx for Windows File Server: Fully managed Windows file system.
FSx for Lustre: High-performance file system integrated with S3.
S3 Glacier: Low-cost cloud storage for data archiving and backup.
CloudFormation: Infrastructure as code service.
CloudTrail: Track user activity and API usage.
Elastic MapReduce (EMR): Managed Hadoop framework for processing big data.
Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK): Managed Apache Kafka service.
DataSync: Automated data transfer service.
Snowcone: Small, portable edge computing and data transfer device.
Snowmobile: Exabyte-scale data transfer service.
App Mesh: Service mesh for microservices.
Backup: Centralized backup service.
CloudEndure Migration: Simplify, expedite, and automate large-scale migration to AWS.
Database Migration Service (DMS): Migrate databases to AWS with minimal downtime.
Global Accelerator: Improve availability and performance for global applications.
Snow Family: Collective term for AWS Snowball, Snowcone, and Snowmobile devices.
WorkLink: Secure mobile access to internal web content.
WorkDocs: Secure document storage and sharing service.